A tank or similar vessel is often employed at a factory, construction site, warehouse, and the like, to receive, store, and distribute a product. These tanks are adapted to accommodate a variety of different products such as, for example, gasoline, propane, fertilizer, chemicals, fuels, and the like. The tanks that hold these products are often being drained of, and subsequently replenished with, the product both during and outside of normal business hours.
Unfortunately, the tanks described above can often be located in remote areas, are not adequately covered by surveillance, watched by owners and employees who use the tanks, and the like. Therefore, the vendors delivering the product to the tanks can either invoice the tank owner for more of the product than is actually delivered (i.e., with gasoline) or invoice for more of the product than is removed (i.e., with waste removal). Currently, such over-invoicing practices are difficult if not impossible to detect unless the tank owner is physically present to check the tank level immediately before and after the filling/drain operation. However, in most circumstances, this direct supervision is not available.
While constant reporting of parameters pertaining to such tanks would be ideal, such is often not practical or commercially feasible. For example, in cellular and satellite metering technology, each set of data that is sent has a cost. Since the typical approach is to read monitor data periodically and then send a report, a data report can be sent quite often (e.g., once an hour), which is expensive, or can be sent infrequently (e.g., once a day), which provides delayed and very limited knowledge about what has happened with monitored parameters. When battery-powered devices are used to monitor tank parameters, the cost noted above is significantly higher. For instance, each packet of data sent uses a portion of battery life and the expense involved in battery replacement in remote locations can be very high.
Thus, a system and method that can monitor a product level in a tank, accurately track, and generate an notification signal if a delivery and/or drain of the product occurs would be desirable. Such information may then be used to verify the invoicing of product into or out of the tank. The invention provides such a system and method. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.